On The Path To Peace
by EnglandBabe1997
Summary: Immediately post the battle. How Harry reunites with the Weasley's. Please read and review xx
1. Chapter 1

**I will most likely write a second chapter to this so keep an eye out. I know I said I wouldn't do anymore one-shots until I'd finished what I'd started but hey... I can't help myself. This is the first Harry Potter thing I've written in a while so things might be totally out of character. Please tell me what you think on that front. Please read and review xx**

Harry entered the Common Room gingerly, being careful to avoid the bruises he knew were most likely already forming, and finding the portrait wide open, the Fat Lady presumably off somewhere celebrating. Ron and Hermione were at his heels still clasping hands tightly.

All of the Weasley's were already in there waiting for them. All of them except Fred. Harry's eyes flicked away for a moment, tearing up at the corners, before he forced the tears back down. There would be plenty of time to cry later. Right now he needed to be strong.

He couldn't break down now, not when Mrs Weasley looked pale and puffy eyes collapsed in an armchair by the fire.

Not when Arthur stood next to her his grip so tight on the back of the armchair his knuckles shone white in the flickering of the firelight.

Not when Bill and Fleur and Charlie and Percy stood huddled together in the corner, despite Percy's only recent reconciliation with the family. It had all been put into perspective. Ron hurried towards them still not letting go of Hermione's hand.

Not when George wouldn't take his eyes of the roaring flames, like it held the answers to fixing the disequilibrium that was now his life. Standing alone he made the most disconcerting image Harry had seen all evening and one that Harry couldn't look at.

Not when Ginny was looking at him like that.

There eyes met for a split second and barely before he'd realised she lunged forwards, grasping his arms tightly. He wrapped his own arms around her, seeking comfort in the first truly still moment he'd had in nine months. Not even her brother's dared to interrupt - at the minute, anyway.

She pulled back slightly, her eyes soft but slightly guarded and started running her hands down his arms and beginning to unbutton his shirt. He moved a hand to stop her but she continued to work and he let her wrist go again.

"Ginny! What _are_ you doing?" Charlie, who had apparently deemed _now_ the time to interrupt, sounded confused and appalled with an undertone of sadness they would all be carrying for a very long time.

"Checking him out. I very much doubt he's gone to the Hospital Wing yet." She eyed him beadily, suddenly reminding him very much of her mother.

"I'm fine," he replied, holding her gaze, which softened slowly into something tender and private until Harry put a careful hand on her cheek and she nuzzled into his wrist, feeling his pulse. He was alive. He hadn't died.

They were alive.

He seemed to be thinking along the same lines. "You scared me so much with Bellatrix. She almost got you." He pressed his forehead to hers.

Ginny moved to respond but was stopped when he leant down to kiss her quickly but forcefully. He moved back again, holding her to him, relishing the feeling of having her back in his arms. Her fingernails tightened onto his biceps.

"What?" Percy spluttered.

Ginny and Harry both jumped, having forgotten they were not alone in the room. Harry reddened slightly. Hermione looked at them sympathetically and even Ron looked understanding. Mrs Weasley's eyes were brimming with tears and she'd recaptured her husband's hand. Bill had wound an arm around his wife but was looking confused. George was smiling softly and a hint of a grin was tugging at his mouth.

Charlie and Percy, however, looked both shocked and angry.

"What do you think you're doing?"

Ginny ignored them. Harry kissed her temple gently before releasing her waist and making his made up the stairs, looking a thousand years old. She stared forlornly after him for a minute before seeming to make up her mind and following him up the stairs. Harry reached the top without looking back, only pausing slightly when her hand slipped into his.

Charlie made forwards to stop her but was halted by a hand on his wrist. He looked up to find his mother staring at him, a single tear track glistening on her cheek.

"You're letting them up there _alone_?"

"I trust Harry. So should you." Percy flinched slightly at that comment, frozen from where he had been making his way towards the dormitories. Mrs Weasley through her son a compassionate and apologetic look, not all meaning what she'd said as it had sounded. She reached out to him, too drained to get up, the shock having yet to have truly passed.

"I do trust Harry," Bill spluttered. "It's just... She sixteen."

George, for whom attempting to break the tension was instinctual, couldn't help himself. "I guess you haven't heard about the boyfriends then."

"_Boyfriends?_"

There was a long pause in which no one said anything, everyone waiting for the one voice they would never hear again. As the silence grew longer another tear slid down Mrs Weasley's cheek and George seemed to age a hundred years.

Ron broke the silence with a light hearted statement that was a bit too forced. "There have been far too many of them."

"But her and Harry haven't dated before!" Charlie said.

"Actually they have. They were together this time last year actually, a couple of months at the end of our sixth year. And then I found them all over each other at the wedding." Ron scowled.

Hermione nudged him lightly with her elbow. "They weren't all over each other."

He shuddered dramatically. "They were. I never want to catch my sister with her hand up my best friend's shirt ever again."

There was another moment of silence before most of the occupants of the room burst into hysterical laughter that soon turned to tears as everyone found themselves clinging to each other reassuring themselves that the rest of them were still alive.

"He loves her," Ron said quietly in the stillness of the moment.

"And she loves him to," Hermione added, speaking up for her best girl-friend.

Charlie had a look of dawning comprehension on his face, realising that his little sister had grown up whilst he was gone. "I hadn't known Ginny could scream like that."

"I had." At the sarcastic declaration, everyone turned to look at George, who still had the tracks of tears on his face and smiled.

Everything would be okay in the end. Maybe not right now but they were already getting there.


	2. Chapter 2

**Last and second chapter (most likely, unless I do a third. Which I probably will end up doing in the end) of On The Path To Peace. I know it's not very emotional, and the actual conversation would be much more serious etc. but hey I've not lived through this stuff it's the best I can do (Grease moment). Please read and review xx**

Harry walked into the dormitory slowly, Ginny right behind him, not relinquishing the tight grip on his hand. There had been a brief moment of confusion about the dormitory - after all, he hadn't _actually_ been a seventh year, but he proceeded into the seventh year dorms anyway, which were empty due to him, Ron and Dean being on the run and Neville and Seamus hiding out in the Room of Requirements. Harry collapsed onto the bed before freeing his hand from Ginny's and placing his head in them, leaning over the edge of the bed and looking at his feet.

"Harry."

"Ginny." He sounded so old. Like he'd aged a hundred years right before her very eyes.

Ginny slid to her knees in front of him, ticking a hand under his chin, forcing him to look at her. She didn't know what to say, what he'd been through this year. How he'd suffered - without her. All she knew was that he was looking at her with such tired eyes, glinting with an edge of hope and dawning peace. She knew that as hard as her year had been, hiding in fear, it had been nothing compared to his.

"I'm so sorry." He placed a careful hand on her cheek. "So, so sorry. I ... shouldn't have kissed you."

Ginny gaped at the statement, as a brief twang of hurt rushed through her, and stood up, turning away slightly. Didn't he want her?

"I don't know what's been going on over the past year. Whether you've moved on or not."

Ginny shook her head wordlessly looking back at him. The idiot. She could hardly believe that he thought she would. It was almost insulting. "Never. I would never do that to you." She braced herself, needing to say it, but unsure of how her words would be received. "I love you."

Harry flinched very slightly and blinked. He'd never had someone say that to him before, up until tonight where he'd heard it from his parents. He didn't know how to feel about that, or indeed what to feel at all, but he was sure of his feelings for Ginny and after a long second he leant forwards to press their foreheads together and murmur "I love you".

Ginny's beautific smile was well worth the uncertainty.

They kissed once more, passionately, before she wrapped her arms around him and tugged at his hands until they were both standing, simply not wanting to let him go again.  
"I was so worried you know? This year," he whispers, nuzzling at her neck.

"I was terrified for you."

Harry looked at her sadly. "At least _I_ knew you were alright. You didn't. I'm so sorry."

"It's al- Wait. How did you know I was alright?"

"I had the Marauders map on me. I used watch you, make sure you were safe." He wasn't sure how creepy that made him sound.

Ginny didn't know what to say.

"I don't know how I would've survived this year if I didn't know you were alright. You keep me going, coming home to you. Even when Voldemort tried to kill me tonight."

"You will have to explain that to me." Ginny tried teasing, her voice only slightly breaking at the memory. If he ever tried that again she would bring him back just to kill him herself.

Harry nipped at her neck, at her pulse point. "I'll explain everything to you. I promise."

Ginny smiled slightly before glancing at the staircase. "I'm surprised she hasn't already sent someone up after us." She smiled slightly mischievously, still hardened by the day's battle. "I don't suppose I'll get away with shutting the door as well?"

"I don't think so."

Ginny peered at him anxiously, surprised at her own rapidly changing mood and barely wanting to look away just in case he disappeared from in front of her eyes. "You look tired." She rubbed the dark circles under his eyes tenderly.

"I am tired. So tired," he said the last bit near silently but Ginny still heard and tightened her grip, reminding him that she wasn't going anywhere at the minute.

"Get some sleep."

He shifted slightly, looking nervous about something.

"What is it?" she asked gently.

"Can you stay with me tonight?" She didn't answer. He rushed on, "Only Ron and Hermione have had each other all year and it seemed to really help and I don't think I could handle it if I woke up tonight and you weren't th-"

She cut off his ramblings with a quick kiss. "Breathe love. I'd love to stay."

Harry had a brief moment of wonder at her casual use of the endearment before taking her hand again. The two of them snuggled together on the bed, not even needing the blankets to keep each other warm, refusing to let go of the other's hand. And as Ginny drifted off to sleep, peaceful for the first time in months, not knowing whether she wanted this whole day to be a dream or not, she heard the faint murmur of 'I love you' whispered into her hair.

In her dreams she smiled.


End file.
